ADM.5134 Media and Society
Instructor: Prof.Dr. Raşit Kaya
Aim of the Course: As members of contemporary societies we share a general
view that the role of
media in modern life is significantly increasing. However, the nature and the extent of media
influence in society is a point of important debate in scholarly accounts as well as popular
commentary, casual conversations and daily experiences. The goal of this course is to locate and
clarify the fondemental scholarly assumptions as to the role of the media in society viewed from
different perspectives and methodologies, in order to make them available for reassessment.
Course Conduct: The students will be initiated to the area of study by lectures in the first threee
weeks of the semestre and required to read the assigned readings. The class will proceed with in
class discussions of the select topics in the following weeks.
(Non-Exhaustive) Topic Examples:
Media freedom, Media and the Public Sphere, Theories of Information Society,Popular Culture and
the media, media and gender, Public Opinion and Polls, Press and Broadcasting in Turkey, etc.
READINGS:
I. Mass Media and Society: General Perspectives
1. Reconstructing the Ruined Tower: Contemporary Communications and Questions of Class:
-Graham Murdock
2. Race, Ethnicity and the Segmentation of Media Markets: -Oscar H. Gandy,Jr.
3. Culture, Communications and Political Economy: -P.Golding and Graham Murdock
4. The Global and Local in International Communications: -Annebelle Sreberny
5. Rethinking Media and Democracy: -James Curran
6. Rethinking the Study of Political ommunication: Jay G. Blumler and M. Gurevitch
7. ‘Influence’: The Contested Core of Media Research: -John Corner
ALL Available in:
Mass Media and Society, (eds.) J.Curran and M.Gurevitch, Arnold, 3. Edi-
tion 2000.
II. Basic Concepts: Ideology,Culture and
Hegemony
1. The Ruling Class and the Ruling Ideas: K.Marx and F.Engels
2.
i) History of the Subaltern Classes;
ii) The concept of ‘ideology’;
iii) Cultural Themes: Ideological Material: Antonio Gramsci
3. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction: Walter Benyamin
4. The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception: M.Horkheimer and T. W. Adorno
ALL available in:
Media and Cultural Studies,Key Works, M.G.Durham- D.M.Kellner (eds.) Blackwel,
2001.
III. İktidar Yumağı – Medya-Sermaye-Devlet, A.Raşit Kaya, İmge Yayınevi, 2010.
(Suggested) Readings-II
1. Information Technology and the Myth of Abundance- Anthony Smith
2. What Information Society- Frank Webster
3. The Global Media in the late 1990s – Adward Herman and Robert McChesney
ALL available in:
The Media Reader: Continuity and Transformation – ed. by H.Mackay & T.O’sullivan.
4. Foundations and Limits of Freedom of Press – Judith Lichtenberg.
5. Social Responsibility Theory – J.C. Nerone.
6. The Public Sphere as Historical Narrative.
All available in:
McQuail’s Reader in Mass Communication Theory.